Julie's dad Jim served aboard "The Hass" during his time on active duty in
the Navy. Our family is very proud of all our military men and women
and we felt naming Hass in honor of not only Jim's time in the service
but all those currently serving was a fitting tribute. The
USS
Hassayampa AO-145 was the third ship built of the Neosho Class (AO 143)
Fleet Oilers. Her keel was laid 13 July 1953, she was
commissioned on 19 April 1955, decommissioned on 17 November 1978 and then
place in service with the Military Sealift Command until 2 October 1991.
She was home ported out of Pearl Harbor as a member of the 7th Fleet and
participated in the Vietnam war, Desert Shield and Desert Storm and the
Gemini 8and 9 space shots. She refueled hundreds of ships untold
numbers of times in her 38 year career including the likes of the USS
Enterprise, USS Franklin D Roosevelt, USS Hornet (36 hours before she picked
us the Apollo 11 astronauts), USS Kitty Hawk, USS Midway and others. We
know that our Hass has a lot to live up to, but we feel
that he has the potential to do his namesake and all her ship's company
proud.